Here was a fresh scene of pleasure to the sweet girl: her presents were shown to every body; were admired; and her delight expressed in the warmest manner, yet not so as to importune or disturb any body by her joy.
The tea-chest was then filled with tea, the sugar-bason with sugar, the urn with water, and Miss _Lydia_ made tea in a very composed and becoming manner. The evening was passed in cheerful and inoffensive amusement, where the chief contest was, who should please and oblige the other most.
When Miss _Fanny_ had been two months with her aunt, her Mamma returned from her journey, and came to fetch her.
Not only Miss _Fanny_, but the rest of the family, were rejoiced to see her: the young persons asked her many questions; whither she had been? and what she had seen?
She was ready to answer all their inquiries with great good-humour; and taking out a book of pocket-maps, said, I will show you the route I have been. We set out, you know, from _Berkshire_. We went through _Oxfordshire_, stopped at _Oxford_, and there, Miss _Lydia_, saw your brother, who shewed us the university, and entertained us with great politeness.
We likewise passed through _Woodstock_; and I have brought each of you a pair of gloves; a manufacture for which you know _Woodstock_ is famous.
We then proceeded through _Warwickshire_, _Staffordshire_, _Cheshire_, _Lancashire_, _Westmoreland_, _Cumberland_, and _Northumberland_, where Fanny, your father’s business was.
As we returned, we came by _Durham_, _Yorkshire_, _Derbyshire_, _Lincolnshire_, _Huntingdonshire_, and _Hertfordshire_.
I have brought my little niece and _Fanny_ a set of doll’s plates and dishes, from _Staffordshire_, and a piece of muslin dimity, for gowns for my elder cousins, from _Manchester_, in _Lancashire_; where we stopped a whole day, to see the very great manufacture that is carrying on there, of cottons, dimities, muslins, &c.
While we were in _Lancashire_, we went to _Ancliff_ near _Wigan_, to see the famous burning well.
The water of this well is cold, and has no smell, yet there is so strong a vapour of sulphur issuing out with the stream, that upon applying a light to it, the top of the water is covered with a flame, like that of burning spirits, which lasts several hours, and emits so fierce a heat, that meat may be boiled over it. The fluid itself will not burn when taken out of the well.